Reviews

TV Review: Ash vs Evil Dead Season 2, Episode 2 “The Morgue” (USA, 2016) be the most bizarre episode yet

So uh…the second episode of season two might very well be the most bizarre episode yet. Not that Ash vs Evil Dead is typically grounded or rooted in normalcy every other week but this ep certainly did its best to deliver a WTF moment. Now that Ruby has joined the gang, enlisting Ash, Pablo and Kelly’s…

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TV Review: Divorce or: No Sex in the City (Starts Wednesday on Showcase)

Did you ever wonder what would become of Sex and the City‘s Carrie Bradshaw had she moved to the suburbs, popped out two children, and wound up married to a man she no longer loves and has “literally nothing to say” to? Well, HBO’s latest offering Divorce may just be for you then. Given that…

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TV Review: Louis Theroux: A Different Brain (UK, 2016) is an emotionally poignant documentary

One of Louis Theroux’s more emotionally poignant documentaries, A Different Brain highlights the incredibly difficult struggles families face when their loved one’s cease to function as they once were. In watching Louis Theroux’s latest documentary to hit the small screen, it becomes quite difficult to not become overly ecstatic with joy. The man is a…

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TV Review: Thirteen (UK, 2016)

What is the first thing you would do after being trapped underground for thirteen years? This is the question that BBC First’s mini-series Thirteen tries to answer. When affordable Pay TV and access to streaming digital content is easier than ever, we demand quality. Where more and more drama and comedy series seem to bring…

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TV Review: Game of Thrones Season 6 Episode 9 “Battle of the Bastards” (USA, 2016)

There was a lot riding on this episode for HBO and Game of Thrones, which inevitably featured Jon Snow finally facing down with Ramsay Bolton as he – along with Sansa and his relatively modest army – sought to wrestle Winterfell from the series’ most despised villain. Traditionally, these kinds of episodes would be the…

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TV Review: Game of Thrones, Season 6 Episode 8 “No One” (USA, 2016)

“No One” is an episode of Thrones that can’t seem to decide what it wants to be. It isn’t quite clear whether this episode is the spark that sets off the cascading events of the season’s final two episodes or a climax in its own right. Though it offers some closure to the Braavos and Riverlands…

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TV Review: Game of Thrones Season 6 Episode 7 “The Broken Man” (USA, 2016)

Watching through this season of Game of Thrones has been incredibly fun for book readers; long-standing theories have turned into massive, fist-pumping reveals, which showrunners David Benioff and D.B Weiss and each episodes respective Directors have handled magnificently. “The Broken Man” finally addressed one of those theories, and it was all revealed quickly during a…

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TV Review: Game of Thrones Season 6 Episode 6 “Blood of my Blood” (USA, 2016)

Beyond any thematic or visual symmetries, the biggest common thread across Season 6 so far has been a sense of direction. Thrones has spent the last five seasons scattering our favorite characters across both Westeros and Essos but with The Night’s King and the White Walkers on the march, it’s about time for things to pull themselves…

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TV Review: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 3 (USA, 2016)

It’s hard to know what to make of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the landscape of superhero television. It lacks the allegorical nuance of Jessica Jones, the gritty hyperviolence of Daredevil and the comic-book stylings of The Flash and Arrow. The show has always been a bit of a hybrid with an appeal of its own – though one…

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TV Review: Gotham, Season 2 (USA, 2016)

The first season of Gotham had a lot of potential but it’s hard not to call it out for being the mess it is. Characters were too one-dimensional and its convoluted plotting left a lot to be desired. By the mid-season finale, I wasn’t really watching Gotham because I wanted to know what happened next as…

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TV Review: Legends of Tomorrow, Season 1 (USA, 2016)

Given its status time-travelling superpowered team adventure, it feels safe to say Legends of Tomorrow is probably the most ambitious effort yet in the CW’s ever-growing lineup of superhero TV shows. Set around the time-travelling Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill), who snatches various DC heroes and villains out of the present to go on a sprawling…

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TV Review: Fear the Walking Dead Episodes 5-7 (USA, 2016)

After a strong fourth episode, “Blood in the Streets”, Fear the Walking Dead made the smart move of getting us off the open water in order to make a big push for season 2, bringing us to Strand’s promised compound in Mexico to deal with the intricacies of death and, surprisingly, split the group into…

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TV Review: Game of Thrones Season 6 Episode 5 “The Door” (USA, 2016)

Just because Benioff & Weiss are somewhat free from George RR Martin’s murderous ways in Game of Thrones’ source material, doesn’t mean the showrunners are any less capable of bringing us to tears. In what will be one of the most talked about scenes of the year when this season is over, a simple phrase…

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TV Review: Ripper Street Season 4 (UK, 2016)

British period crime drama series Ripper Street has had a bit of a rickety ride. The show was cancelled after 2 seasons only to be resurrected by Amazon Prime (with a little help from the BBC) for a third series. Which was then extended to a fourth and fifth, only for the fifth to then…

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TV Review: Game of Thrones Season 6 Episode 4 “Book of the Stranger” (USA, 2016)

It’s quite clear that Benioff and Weiss are unperturbed about Game of Thrones (mostly) surpassing its source material, and so far it has proved to be more of a blessing than a curse. Now with 4 episodes to show, Season Six has been a solid season of surprising, though rapid, developments that leap forward to…

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TV Review: Silicon Valley Season 3, Episode 3 (USA, 2016)

Behold, the running gag of the gold chain. This episode sees Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani) finally on a salary, treating himself to a delicate gold chain that he drapes around his neck. Gilfoyle (Martin Starr) spots it first and so begins a pun-tastic thirty-minute journey. The Pied Piper boys spare no expense at tearing the poor…

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TV Review: Game of Thrones, Season 6 Episode 3 “Oathbreaker” (USA, 2016)

Like Season 4’s similarly-named “Oathkeeper”, “Oathbreaker” is very much one of those in-between episode of Game of Thrones. There’s a little bit happening on almost-every front here – but not all that much overall. We checked in with Sam to see how things are going en-route to Oldtown, we checked in with Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and Cersei (Lena…

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TV Review: Silicon Valley Season 3, Episode 2 (USA, 2016)

Richie (Thomas Middleditch) returns to the doctor this week (the fantastically inappropriate, Andrew Daly) and comes out with a full bill of health. He’s still battling with being kicked out of Pied Piper, only to return as CTO. The boys enter the newly designed Pied Piper office, which again looks too good to be true….

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TV Review: Game of Thrones, Season 6 Episode 2 “Home” (USA, 2016)

If last week’s episode began to build up the idea that the showrunners of Game of Thrones might have what it takes to pull off an ending to Martin’s saga, this week’s episode continued this – delivering an impressive episode with plenty of big moments that are sure to clog up social media over the…

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TV Review: Fear the Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 4 “Blood in the Streets” (USA, 2016)

Let’s just be clear here, this – alongside the Season One finale – is what Fear the Walking Dead needs more of. “Blood in the Streets” was a step in the right direction for the series, which has, for the overwhelming majority, come across as a struggling, stagnant drama that would rely excessively on the…

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TV Review: Broad City, Season 3 (USA, 2016)

Broad City has, like many good shows. survived the three-season landmark. Many shows seem to leak creative juices until that Season 3 where characters get stale, plotlines become gimmicks and guest stars come in with no real map of where to go in the show. Broad City has thankfully not been one of those shows….

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TV Review: Fear the Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 3 “Ouroboros” (USA, 2016)

“Ouroboros” was a substantial step in the right direction for Fear the Walking Dead, picking up the slack that dragged the previous two episodes with another excursion to an island, the introduction of new characters tying in from the Flight 462 webisodes, and the show’s biggest humans-versus-horde piece to date (as opposed to humans-overwhelmed-by-horde in…

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TV Review: Silicon Valley Season 3, Episode 1 (USA, 2016)

The Pied Piper boys are back in a third season of Silicon Valley. Each season gets better and better, and this one is already proving to be its best yet. It is a wonderful blend of humour, honesty, and melancholy. Richard Hendricks (Thomas Middleditch) finds himself in another pickle with his start-up – it all…

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TV Review: Game of Thrones, Season 6 Episode 1 “The Red Woman”

Despite its status as the biggest TV series in pop culture these days, it’s an unexpected-but-promising sign that “The Red Woman” kicks off Season 6 of Game of Thrones with a whimper and not a bang. The episode wasted no time in picking up the pieces left in the wake of Jon Snow’s death last season with Davos…

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TV Review: Better Call Saul Season 2, Episodes 8-10 Review (USA, 2016)

These final three episodes of Better Call Saul‘s second season feel like they leave the series at a fascinating crossroads. In spite of the bold proclamation that ended the first season, Jimmy McGill’s evolution into Saul Goodman isn’t anywhere near that clear-cut. This season has seen him start to become Saul – one choice at a time…

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TV Review: Girls Season 5 (USA, 2016)

Season 5 of Girls sees the show take more risks than ever before and, when all is said and done, it feels like the show comes out a little more mature – as do its characters. Season 5 picks up a few months after 4, with Hannah (Lena Dunham) having moved on from her relationship with Adam (Adam Driver)…

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TV Review: Fear the Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 2 “We All Fall Down” (USA, 2016)

It’s hard to tell when Fear the Walking Dead will start living up to its potential. The tone is there, and the scenes with the infected are deliciously dark and effective, presenting with the kind of horror The Walking Dead took four years to perfect, but these are only small flickers in what is an…

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TV Review: Fear the Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 1 “Monster” (USA, 2016)

We jump into Season 2 of AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead with what looks like a short, confusing time jump. Christopher is still leaning over his mother’s corpse but it seems like the whole city has been fire-bombed, creating this smokey red tone to kickstart the premiere in a surprisingly exciting way. Sure, it feels…

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TV Review: The People v O.J. Simpson – American Crime Story (USA, 2016)

When you think about the obstacles and expectations that The People vs O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story has to overcome, it sounds almost as unbelievable as the verdict of the infamous case itself. As a follow-up and spin-off to Ryan Murphy‘s American Horror Story, The People vs O. J. Simpson has to prove that can Murphy’s talents for…

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